{"id":238019,"date":"2026-03-26T20:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/238019\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T20:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:22:08","slug":"fresno-department-store-site-faces-possible-demolition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/238019\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno department store site faces possible demolition"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 50-plus-year-old building that sits on the east side of Fashion Fair Mall is on the brink of demolition.<\/p>\n

For decades, it was a symbol of retail shopping in Fresno and housed some of the city\u2019s largest department stores.<\/p>\n

The signage was visible from across the center\u2019s parking lot: Weinstock\u2019s<\/a> in the 1970s, then Gottschalk\u2019s<\/a> and most recently Forever 21, until its closure last year.<\/a> Even vacant, the building maintains an air of nostalgia, with its stacked concrete design, done in the late modernist, almost brutalist, style.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not historic.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to a report presented (and affirmed in a 5-1 vote) at a meeting of the city\u2019s Historic Preservation Committee<\/a> this week. The finding will be sent to the city council for a final vote, but it is seen as clearing the way for demolition of the building.<\/p>\n

\"The The former Forever 21 location teases the future tenant at Fashion Fair Mall, seen Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025 in Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com Coming soon: Dicks\u2019 House of Sport<\/p>\n

In its place, the shopping center has plans for Dick\u2019s House of Sport,<\/a> an experience-driven concept store that includes climbing walls, batting cages, golf simulators and, in some cases, an ice rink. It would be one of the first such stores in California for the retail chain. Pending construction or other delays, the store could open in 2027, according to Andy Greenwood, VP of Development at Macerich, the company that owns the mall.<\/p>\n

For months, Fashion Fair had been hinting at the possibility of a new tenant for the space, which has been vacant since Forever 21 went bankrupt last year. A giant message on the side of building teased the new development as \u201ca gamechanger.\u201d<\/p>\n

In December, the mall\u2019s general manager told The Bee it was in deep negotiations.<\/a> He couldn\u2019t say with whom, only that the plans would involve razing building, which, because of its age was eligible for historical consideration.<\/p>\n

The city commissioned a historic resource evaluation to determine if the building could be added to the historic registry, either at the national<\/a>, state<\/a> or local level.<\/a><\/p>\n

The evaluation looked at historical associations and the architectural significance, not only of the building and its architect (the Los Angeles firm Charles Luckman Associate), but also of the mall itself.<\/p>\n

While Fashion Fair is an early example of a suburban mall, it wasn\u2019t Fresno\u2019s first. The Mayfair Shopping Center, Manchester Center<\/a> and Fig Garden Village had all been operating for a decade before Fashion Fall was built in 1969. Nor was the Weinstock\u2019s building of a singular architectural design. Identical designs were used for stores in Citrus Heights and Riverside, according to the evaluation.<\/p>\n

Other than its age, the building didn\u2019t meet any criteria for inclusion of the historic registries.<\/p>\n

\"The The former Forever 21 is seen at the east end of Fashion Fair Mall, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025 in Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com An argument for adaptive reuse<\/p>\n

Still, the commission questioned whether there was any potential for adaptive re-use.<\/p>\n

Because the space was originally built for a large-scale department store, it\u2019s a difficult sell for prospective tenants, Greenwood, said answering questions from the commission Monday night.<\/p>\n

Even when it was occupied by Forever 21, the building was underutilized, Greenwood. The clothing store took up just one floor of the three-story building. The building had been pitched to various entertainment-type businesses, Greenwood said. None found it suitable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere might be someone body out there,\u201d Greenwood said, though he called that pool of potential tenants \u201csmall or virtually non-existent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t found someone across the United States who would be in that position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n

Joshua Tehee<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fresno Bee<\/p>\n

Joshua Tehee covers breaking news for The Fresno Bee, writing on a wide range of topics from police, politics and weather, to arts and entertainment in the Central Valley.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 50-plus-year-old building that sits on the east side of Fashion Fair Mall is on the brink of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[107338,43548,112,107335,114,113,107337,107336],"class_list":{"0":"post-238019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-demolition-plans","9":"tag-fashion-fair-mall","10":"tag-fresno","11":"tag-fresno-department-store","12":"tag-fresno-headlines","13":"tag-fresno-news","14":"tag-gottschalks-building","15":"tag-weinstocks-site"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}